gig
report St
Andrews pub Sun. 19.9.10Another
St Andrews gig, but with a twist..20.9.10 - It was a very different start
to our semi-regular Sunday arvo at the St Andrews pub this last
Sunday, with the internationally acclaimed Rudely Interrupted
taking over our stage to lay a set of Rude music on an unsuspecting
audience. (Actually, 'unsuspecting' is not quite accurate because
there were quite a number of Rude fans in the room to see their
heroes). The occasion was their bassist Sam's (pic 1)
birthday, (Rohan explained Sam claims that every day
is his birthday), but it was also an opportunity for The Trollops
to celebrate Heather's (pic 3) impending birthday,
so it really was a birthday special as advertised.
Mind you, there was nearly trouble when the Rudes' drummer busted
his snare drum a few songs in, but Robbo blithely lent him his
snare drum - and we all held our breath in case it got pulverised
as well, but it lasted the distance. Anyway, I think everybody
was impressed with Rudely Interrupted and the concept of having

special guests at St Andrews is something
we may entertain doing again.
My son Chris (pic 5) came along for the afternoon and
was very happy to see his uncle Geoff there (pic 2)
and I was pleased to see that the Drs Sellers put in another
appearance as well. We played a few songs in the retro set that
we haven't played for a while, like I'll Take You High,
But That's Alright and Disco Dilemma, and the
Sellers and The Trollops combined to set the floor alight and
danced the evening away. (pic 7)

The
music goes round my head16.9.10 -This looks interesting. The
writer, David Johnston, occasionally got in touch to ask the
odd historical question of me and Bill and has now released
the book - I must get myself a copy! He sent me the following
blurb:The music goes round my head
has as its starting point the Beatles' impact on Australia and
how musicians then reacted to this here. It follows through
to when pop began to diversify into rock, progressive, m.o.r.
and teenybopper sounds and moved out of local dances and unlicensed
inner city discos into pubs, festivals and fully staged concerts.
The book's focus is the music of the era (not so much the fashions,
lifestyles, etc.), and covers not only the well known artists
from the time, but numerous others less well known whose music
was often of equal, sometimes superior quality. 'Pop' was the
essentially undiscriminating term for any music that was popular
in any way - beat

music, r&b, soul, bubblegum,
experimental and rock, but also the 'folk' of the Twiliters
and the softer sounds of Kamahl. So its range is from the
Seekers to the Creatures, and everything else in between -
in some cases, beyond!The music goes round my head pays
tribute to those who pursued originality of style and composition;
other issues that emerge are the large number of British (and
other European) immigrants who were successful in Australian
music, similarly, the waves of New Zealanders who tried their
luck here to varying success, the emergence of 'scenes' in
state capitals and rural regions away from the Sydney-Melbourne
axis, attempts to succeed overseas, and, the limited opportunities
for female artists (question - which now hugely successful
Australian woman never recorded a single here?)
The book is a larger format 400 page locally printed paperback
with gloss laminated cover and it is illustrated with more
than 1000 margin size photos and other archival images. It's
fully referenced and indexed, with an alphabetical list of
all songs referred to. It also commences with a short preface
that traces earlier popular music - folk, jazz, rock'n'roll
- that was imported here from Britain, and then America from
white settlement to 1963.
A limited edition of 1000 copies has been produced and 50%
of the $40 price - a potential $20,000 - will be donated to
Support Act, the Australian musicians' benevolent charity
(I'm not making any money out of this - the total experience
in producing it has been something money can't buy!) Packaging
and postage on average will be $13 within Australia (overseas
negotiable).
Advance copies are now available by e.mailing me at roundmyhead@gmail.com
Payment can be by internet funds transfer or Paypal. A website
www.roundmyhead.com
will also be live later this week.

The
Wagga WaggaJazz
& BluesFestival1)
A Jazzer enters the room 2) Spectrumplays
'the song' on the Home Tavern Hotel stage in Wagga Wagga (Neil)3)
The ABC's Bill Brown and Festival organiser Roger Ansell 4)
Lloyd Spiegel poses with my friend JaneGreagg5) The
Sunday morning service in the Gospel tent 6) Di and Rayshow
up again in Wagga Waggagig
report
Wagga Wagga Jazz & Blues Festival 11-12.9.10Spectrum
ventures north of the border - again!14.9.10 - First there was Newcastle
- now Wagga Wagga! This one came out of the blue when Roger
Ansell (pic 3) contacted me some months ago and asked
if we'd be interested in appearing at the Wagga Wagga Jazz &
Blues Festival. I couldn't remember at the time when we'd last
played in Wagga, but Roger reminded me later that his band TODE
had supported Ariel there and in Bathurst back in the mid '70s.
(I can remember Bathurst, but I still can't remember Wagga Wagga..)
And so it came about that last Friday we loaded up the van with
a minimal amount of equipment and the full complement of players
- Daz had never travelled with us in the van before - and headed
towards the NSW border, not quite sure if the floods were going
to impact on our journey.
As it happened they didn't, and we made good time to Wagga and
settled in to the Astor Inn, where most of the musicians were
accommodated. At breakfast the following morning, Lloyd Spiegel
(pic 4) said he's had some difficulties getting the
sound worked out at the Home Tavern where we were due to play
that afternoon, and the sound was remarkably flat on
and off stage, but it was the same for everybody. For our first
set we were a bit nervy however, and the flatness of the sound
didn't actually offer any assistance, but by the last spot on
the Sunday we'd got used to it and were able to relax a bit.
Bill and I had an interview planned with Bill Brown (pic
3) from the ABC on Saturday morning before our first spot
that afternoon and we spent an hour or so in Bill's Town House
room being gently interrogated about our early career in particular
and our thoughts on the music scene past and present in general,
which was fun but also quite draining.
The 'Jazz' in the festival's Jazz & Blues job description
is of the Trad variety, and most of the audiences seemed to
be composed of those gentle folk, (pic 1) with a sprinkling
of blues enthusiasts and an even smaller minority of people
who could vaguely remember Spectrum, but they seemed to be curious
to find out what we were about and gave us a polite, verging
on warm reception.
We got there early that night to catch Lloyd
Spiegel and percussionist Arunachala's set and were duly
gob-smacked with Lloyd's muscular virtuosity on the guitar.
I'm looking forward to listening to his CD.
Our blues set was received pretty well too and so we were all
pretty happy when we adjourned to the café across the
road with my friends Jane (pic 4) and Maria to have
a meal and wind down.
On Sunday morning we'd been advised that the Gospel tent was
the place to be, (pic 4) but it was packed to the gills
so I asked Roger where the old cemetery was so that I could
follow up a tip I'd got that there were a few deceased Rudds
stacked up there. (See ASR)
The Sunday arvo set was our most relaxed, but, like all of them
was over all too quickly, (we played fifty minutes tops), and
I said to Roger as we bade our fond farewells that we would've
liked to have played just a little longer, but in all
other respects we'd had a terrific time and we'd love to do
it again. We would too..